AUDIOBOOK PODCAST: Improved Lies - Part 11

Each Saturday for 16 weeks, The Times will run an excerpt from "Improved Lies," a novel by former Bay City attorney Brian M. Kennedy. The story involves a murder and controversial trial in the fictional city of Lake Pointe, Mich.

The good doctor withdrew a file from his briefcase, snapped the case shut and plodded slowly to the witness stand. Nearing 60 and carrying well over 200 pounds on a 5-foot-9 frame, he moved ponderously. Tina looked like an elf next to Santa as she escorted the doctor to the stand.

As he turned to be sworn, the stem of his signature meerschaum pipe peeked from the breast pocket of his lab coat. Bulldog-like jowls hung from a face creased with years of study into human depravity. He removed his reading glasses from their case and slid them well down his broad nose, peering over the glasses to swear to tell the truth.

The doctor described the rich supply of blood to the scalp as explanation for the extensive bleeding. "In fact, the amount of bleeding from her nonfatal wounds allows me to state with medical certainty that the victim lived some minutes before the fatal blow to the back of the head was administered."

"Can you describe and sequence the blows the victim received?"

Using picture after picture, the doctor described each injury and how it had been inflicted. By the time he finished, three spinster regulars in the gallery had slipped out of the courtroom. From the jurors' faces, it was clear many wanted to join them.

The doctor describes three separate blows with a golf club. Tina presses on....
"Can you sum things up for us, doctor?"

"It is my considered opinion that Mrs. Armbruster saw her attacker and had her arm up to fend off the first blow, which still lacerated the forehead. She received a second blow behind the ear, which knocked her to the floor, where she lay bleeding for at least a matter of minutes. I cannot say whether she was conscious throughout that time. However, I'm certain she was conscious as she got to her knees when the final fatal blow was struck."

"Can you tell us how much time passed between the first blow and the final fatal blow?"

"Conservatively, five minutes. I say this because she has what we call raccoon eyes. The first blow to the forehead caused the eyeballs to jolt in their sockets with attendant micro-tears to the blood vessels in the eye sockets."

"So whatever passion, anger, madness led to the initial blows, there was time, five minutes, for the attacker to consider what he had done?"

"Objection, Your Honor." I rose to break the steady drumbeat to the gallows. "The doctor has not said that the attacker was male."

The jury looked at me in disbelief. Wasn't it obvious the attacker was the male seated next to me?

Tina waved her hand as if at a fly. "I'll rephrase, your honor. He or she had about five minutes to consider and deliberate before inflicting the fatal wound."

The doctor nodded. "I'd say so."

"And was the wound willfully inflicted? By that I mean, any possibility the fatal wound was accidental?"

The doctor removed his reading glasses in a sweep of truth. "No, ma'am."

Edwards has studied the pictures until his eyes were bleary. On cross he explores what he thinks he sees.
"First, as part of the autopsy, did you examine Amanda Armbruster's genital area for recent signs of intercourse?"

"Yes, that's standard procedure. Our findings indicated no semen and no vaginal indication of intercourse in the last 48 hours."

"What about any trauma in the vicinity?"

"Still reading the autopsy protocol carefully, I see. The victim had bruise marks on the upper left thigh consistent with pressure from a human hand."

The jurors perked up.

"Are you able to tell the jurors how long before death the bruising occurred?"

"I can say with confidence that the injury occurred within one to three hours premortem."

"Are these kind of bruises found in rape victims?"

"Sometimes."

"Now, doctor, something else I didn't hear you say on Miss Botham's questioning. Did you identify the golf club, Exhibit 5, as having inflicted all wounds, left forehead, right arm, behind the left ear, and the fatal wound to the back of the head?"

"No, Miss Botham did not ask me that."

I raised my eyebrows and donned a quizzical look. I could feel the first little pulse of positive jury energy. They were checking their notes and sitting up, taking notice.

"The damage to the bone matches the heel of the club. The club head contains residual brain tissue and a fragment of bone. The shaft near the club head is distorted or bent from the impact that left the so-called train track impression. I am sure Exhibit 5 struck the fatal blow."

"Uh-huh, but you are not sure it struck the other blows?" I held my breath.

The doctor nodded and a wry look crinkled the comers of his lips. "I'm glad this is coming up for discussion." He glanced over to the prosecution table. Neither Bliss nor Botham looked back. A-ha, Mr. Law and Order and Miss Prim and Proper had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

"I am a little troubled about the nonfatal wounds."

"Tell the jury then what troubles you, doctor."

"If you hand me the golf club and the close-up pictures of the club face, I'll demonstrate."

The courtroom hummed with a silent expectancy.

"The club's face on Exhibit 5 looks new. I'm no expert on golf clubs, but I have a friend at the crime lab who is an expert on tool marks, that is to say, metal impressions. His name is Paul Fredericks. I showed him the club and the abrasions on Mrs. Armbruster's right forehead as well as the smaller marks over her left ear."

Tina objects over the introduction of hearsay evidence, but is overruled by the judge. Zimmer continues.
"Mr. Frederick's opinion is that the photograph of the club head on the defendant's club, Exhibit 5, shows a very new club which has hardly ever been used. See how sharp the ridges and grooves are?" He held up the close-ups of the club face, and I moved next to him at the witness stand.

"And the abrasions on Mrs. Armbruster's forehead differ from what you'd expect if Exhibit 5 had inflicted them - how?"

"Toward the middle of the club face, what Mr. Fredericks calls the sweet spot, the abrasions are flatter, less pronounced. He feels that the wounds were inflicted with exactly the same model sand wedge but might have been, and I repeat might have been, inflicted with a club that had been played more often, much more often, to the point where the center area ridges and grooves are more depressed and smooth."

"But the bottom line is, you believe there is a genuine scientific possibility that Exhibit 5, Mr. Armbruster's club, did not inflict the forehead wound?"

He paused, considered and replied. "I must admit that to be so."

"Now, doctor, can you demonstrate to the jury on any of the pictures, or on the club head, a deformity which would match the little V mark above the victim's ear?"

He barely looked at the exhibit before answering. "I cannot."

"Why not?"

"There are two possibilities. The first, and what I thought by far more likely before talking to Mr. Fredericks, is that when I attempted to re-approximate the wound, I distorted the skin with my fingers."

"And the second possibility?"

"There was a second club of the exact same model used to inflict injury on Mrs. Armbruster."

Probably some in the audience or jury had seen it coming. Nevertheless, the whole court gasped.

Miss Theary, the librarian, raised her hand and asked the judge if they could please see Exhibit 26 and the club picture again, which the judge allowed. The courtroom was quiet while the jurors did their own sleuthing. This was good, very good. Finally, something to slow down the rush-to-judgment express.

"To conclude then, doctor, there exists a very real scientific possibility that two clubs were used?"

"True."

"Two different people could have wielded the clubs?"

"Also true."

"Or one person could've struck Amanda with the worn sweet spot club with a stone nick, and then, during the five minutes or so you describe proceeding the final blow, grabbed Ted's club to make it look like Ted did it and cover their tracks?"

Tina was out of her chair. "I object, Your Honor, this calls for pure speculation by the doctor."

"I'll rephrase, Your Honor. Is there anything about the wounds and physical evidence that we have just been discussing inconsistent with that scenario? The killer used the missing club in the initial attack and switched to use Ted's club sometime during Amanda's last five minutes."

The doctor gave Tina a few seconds to launch another objection. When none was forthcoming, he put his glasses in his pocket, scratched his nose in deliberation and answered, "I have only acknowledged the possibility of two clubs as a possibility I am unable to eliminate. If you assume that possibility to be true, then your hypothesis is possible."

"And if it is possible, then you can't eliminate it beyond a reasonable doubt?"

"That is true."

"Thank you, doctor. Wonderful to see you again." I said it and meant it as I sat down.

Tina redirected and got the doctor to rehash his direct evidence. But the jury was only listening with half an ear. Somehow the case that had seemed so certain contained a mystery. Their expressions told me they were turning that mystery over in their minds like a Chinese puzzle box. And if they were puzzled, there was hope.

As I made my way to the elevator I even noticed the hostility of the spectators begin to thaw. An old-timer in a John Deere hat and coveralls came over and shook my hand. "Still think the husband did it, but you're giving me something to wrestle with. You've got the second club stashed somewhere, eh?"

"'Fraid not, old fella, but if you find it, let me know."

Next week: Edwards and Detective Bliss battle over Ted's confession, and a heated golf match reveals a cheater - and possible murder suspect.ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brian Melville Kennedy was born in Renfrew, Ontario, and now lives near Ocho Rios, on the north coast of Jamaica.

Kennedy's stops in between include Grosse Pointe; Barcelona, Spain; Lugano, Switzerland; Aurora, Ontario; East Lansing; and 26 years in Bay City. He graduated magna cum laude from Michigan State University before attending Wayne State University's law school to obtain his juris doctor degree in 1974.

He became the chief trial lawyer and head of the Career Offender Program in the Bay County Prosecutor's Office. From 1974-1978 he tried in excess of 100 jury trials, including multiple murder trials. The murder trials all ended in conviction.

In 1978 he mounted an unsuccessful bid as a Republican candidate for Michigan Senate; in 1979 he began a private practice that spanned to 2001.

Kennedy taught evidence and criminal procedure at Delta College and was a lecturer for Michigan's Institute of Continuing Legal Education.

In 2001, Kennedy and his wife, Shelley, moved to 4 acres of oceanfront in Jamaica they share with four dogs and a cat. Their daughter, Shannon Newby, works for alumni relations at Kennesaw State University in Georgia and was recently married in Jamaica.